BCDA gets ready to bid out 2 projects

The Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) is getting ready to bid out two big-ticket infrastructure projects in the next two years under the administration’s public-private partnership (PPP) scheme.

On top of the BCDA’s list of priority projects is the development of the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA).

Located at Clark Freeport, Pampanga, the DMIA is being primed to replace Manila as the country’s premiere international gateway.

The other project is the planned overhead train line connecting business districts in Pasay, Makati, Taguig and Mandaluyong.

Like the Clark airport, the new Metro Manila train line will be bid out as a PPP project, with the private sector bearing the bulk of the costs.

“We are now ready to take on new projects,” BCDA Chairman Felicito Payumo said late Wednesday.

Payumo said that there is an immediate need for the development of DMIA, noting that the worsening congestion of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Manila may hold back the growth of the country’s tourism sector.

“That is the biggest missing piece of infrastructure (in the region),” Payumo said.

Local infrastructure conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) said the DMIA would likely serve as a complement to NAIA, which will remain the country’s main airport.

“Eventually, it will have to be the same size, if not larger than NAIA,” MPIC chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said of the facility located just an hour’s drive north of Metro Manila.

Pangilinan said the company has yet to submit the results of its study for the DMIA.

BCDA and Pangilinan-led Manila North Tollways Corp. recently signed a new business and operating agreement covering the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx).

BCDA president Arnel Casanova said the SCTEx contract should serve as a model for all PPPs to be put on the auction block by the Aquino administration.

MNTC won the contract to operate SCTEx late last year.

However, before the company could formally take over the road, the BCDA management called for a review of its contract to seek better terms.

The review and negotiations were concluded this month.

MNTC said it plans to spend around P300 million in the next nine months to seamlessly link SCTEx with North Luzon Expressway (NLEx), the Pangilinan group’s other road project.

Meanwhile, Casanova said the government stands to earn at least P30 billion over the span of its deal with MNTC, which will remit about 20 percent of its toll revenues from SCTEx to the BCDA.

Casanova said the additional funds would be used to fund additional infrastructure projects and to bankroll the modernization of the country’s Armed Forces.

The BCDA’s primary task is the development of military bases vacated by the United States and use the revenues earned for the modernization of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.